Thursday, December 14, 2017

My Review of Empire's 4x09: "Slave To Memory"


Written by Joshua Allen & Dianne Houston
Directed by Sanaa Hamri

Cookie (to Lucious, re Diana): "We got one shot to put this bitch down for good."

It's been building up for long enough and as fun as the DuBois lot have been as antagonists, this probably was the right moment to take them down for good with one of them dying and the other facing public disgrace and arrest to boot.

I loved that in spite of all the protocol that Diana undertook to keep the Lyons out of the Captain's Ball, she still couldn't succeed in having her fancy event go off without a hitch as Lucious and Cookie got to Angelo, made him sign a confession and then gatescrashed the event as Cookie delivered a powerful blow to Diana's social standing within the community.

Having all of Diana's crimes against the Lyon family revealed to her society pals was one way to bruise her ego but also having her arrested for Bella's abduction was another. While I'm sure we'll see her again in some capacity in the second half of the season, this was a glorious takedown for a character who was delightfully villainous but it wasn't just Diana who got her just desserts.

There was something deeply satisfying in seeing Lucious beating the crap out of Angelo after getting him to sign a confession but having Jamal inadvertently kill him to save Warren was another strong moment of the episode. I am glad to see Angelo killed off, even if it's left Jamal in something of a dire situation when the show returns in the Spring.

As for Warren, I think he more than redeemed himself in this episode and despite some justified anger, you could tell that Jamal still cares about him as well and given that Warren basically hung his own family out to dry, getting in with the Lyons or getting out of dodge full stop are probably his only options right now.

Of course it wasn't just the DuBois clan who suffered here too. Hakeem was able to get his revenge on Anika in a calm, collected manner by getting Bella off her and considering the crap Anika has pulled, this was a long time coming as well. How the show is going to keep her around for the remaining of the season, I'm not sure.

The rest of the episode then saw Shyne paying Andre a visit, desperate for the latter to keep his mouth shut, only for Andre to actually reveal to Lucious about his role in the car bomb from last season. However given that the episode ended with Lucious being snatched by Claudia, I think the newly back Lyon patriarch has bigger problems to deal with.

- Becky is pregnant and according to Eddie's ex-wife, Giselle, they're also broke/fleeced by a Ponzi scheme, so he'll be sticking around for a while longer.
- No Tiana and Tory for this one and Porscha didn't really do anything of consequence either.
- Chronology: Yet another version of Jamal/Hakeem's Love Is A Drug but also Andre's opening dream sequence number, Superstar, which was fantastic.
- Chronology: From where the previous episode more or less left off.

Slave To Memory served as a strong mid-season finale. This season has been pretty strong but I'm glad the show is closing down on the DuBois storyline, though I'm hoping that Claudia's Misery style arc with Lucious isn't overly prolonged.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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